Dilton Marsh is a village and parish in the County of Wiltshire, in the south west of England.

Location

Its closest town is Westbury, which lies due east of the village. To the west is the Somerset town of Frome; Warminster is to the south, and Trowbridge (the county town) is just to the north (these last two are both in Wiltshire).

Features

The village High Street is 2 km (2187 yd) long. In the centre of the village is Holy Trinity Church. This Anglican church was built in 1844 in a rather unusual neo-Romanesque style by Thomas Henry Wyatt. The village also has a primary school, a public house (the Prince of Wales), a post office, grocery shop and Chinese takeaway.

Transport Links

At the eastern end of the village is Dilton Marsh Halt, a simple railway platform on the regional line. It is the subject of the John Betjeman poem Dilton Marsh Halt.

History

The original settlement, Old Dilton, some 2.5 km (1.5 miles) south of the present village centre at , now consists of a couple of farm houses and the beautiful St Mary's Church (with a triple-decker [pulpit] and box pews). As fewer workers were needed in the local woollen industry, with the introduction of greater mechanisation, many moved to the common land of the drained marsh on the northern side of the ridge. By the early nineteenth century, Dilton Marsh had outgrown the older settlement.

Local government

Dilton Marsh has its own, elected parish council. Local government services are provided by West Wiltshire District Council and Wiltshire County Council, both of whom have their offices in nearby Trowbridge. The village is represented in Parliament by the MP for Westbury, Andrew Murrison, and in Wiltshire County Council by Christopher Newbury.

External links

• The Villages of Dilton and Dilton Marsh - local history website
• Dilton Marsh website